Standard programs automake, make, and gcc. These are most likely already installed

All the prerequisites the program requires. If you usually use install programs from binaries, (rpm, deb), you will probably have to install devel or src packages. If that doesn't work, you may have to install the prerequisites from source.

Configure the install by changing into the untared directory, and execute ./configure

./configure is the default configuration, most of the time its satisfactory. By executing ./configure --help, it will display all the configuration options. The install directory is set by adding the flag --prefix=/usr or --prefix=/usr/local